The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-07-27
If Paul might have gone on to too great

a thunderbolt and hurled, and it is not
religious truth scattered over. spread out
over a vast reach of time, but religious
truth projected in compact form that
flashes light upon the soul and rives its
Indifference.
When the religious discourse of the
future arrives in this land and in the
Christian church, the discourse which is
to arouse the world and startle the ma
tons, and usher in the kingdom, it will
be brief discourse. Hear it, all theolog-
ical students, all ye just entering upon
religious work, all We men and women
who in Sabbath schools and other de-
partments are toiling for Christ and the
salvation of immortals. Brevity, brew
ityi
But remark also that the religious
discourse of the future of which l speak
will be a popular discourse. There are
those in these times who speak of popu-
lar sermon as though there must be
wrong about it. As these
critics are dull themselves the world gets
the impression that the sermon is good
in proportion as it is stupid. Christ was
the most popular preacher the world ever
saw, and considering the small number
Of the world population had the largest
audiences ever gathered. He never
preached anywhere without making a
great sensation. People rushed out in
the wilderness TO hear him, reckless of
their physical necessities. So great was
their anxiety to hear Christ that, taking
no food with them, they would have
tainted and starved had not Christ per
formed a miracle and fed them.
Why did so many people take the truth
at Christ's hands? Because they all I'M
derstood it. He illustrated his subject
by a hen and her chickens, by bushel
measure, by handful of salt, by birds
flight and by lily's aroma. All the
people knew what he meant and they
hocked to him. And when the religious
discourse of the future appears, it will
not be Princetonian, not Rochesterian,
not Andoverian, not Middletonian, but
Olivetic-p plain, practical, unique, earn
est, comprehensive of all the woes,
wants. sins, sorrovs and necessities of an
auditory.
But when that exhortation or discourse
does come there will be a thousand
cleaning scimetars to charge on it.
There are in so many theological semina-
ries professors telling young men how to
preach, themselves not knowing how,
and | am told that if young man in
some of our theological seminaries says
anything quaint or thrilling or unique,
faculty and students fly at him and set
him right. and straighten him out, and
smooth him down, and chop him off,
until he says everything just as every
body else says it.
Oh, when the future religious discourse
of the Christian church arrives, all the
churches of Christ in our great cities will
be thronged The world wants spiritual
help. All who have buried their dead
want comfort. All know themselves to
be mortal and to be immortal and they
want to hear about the great future. i
tell YOU my friends, if the people of our
great cities who have had trouble only
thought they could get practical and sym
pathetic help in the Christian church,
there would not be street in New York,
or Brooklyn, or Chicago, or Charleston,
or Philadelphia, or Boston which would
be passable ON the Sabbath day if there
We're a church on it; for all the people
would press to that asylum of mercy,
that great house of comfort and conso-
lation.
A mother with dead babe in her arms
came to the god Veda and asked to have
her child restored to life. The god Veda
said to her: You go and get handful
of mustard seed from a house in which
there has been no sorrow and in which
there has been no death, and will restore
your child to life.' So the mother went
out, and she went from house to house,
and from home to home, looking for a
place where there had been no sorrow and
where there had been no death, but she
found none. She went back to the god
Veda and said: "My mission is failure;
you see | haven't brought the mustard
seed; can't find a place where there has
been no sorrow and no death. "Oh,
says the god Veda, understand your sor-
rows are no worse than the sorrows of
others; we all have our griefs and all
have our heartbreaks. -
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its mrth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
We hear a great deal of discussion now
all over the land about why people do
not go to church. Some say it is because
Christianity is dying out, and because
people do not believe in the truth of
Gods word, and all that They are false
reasons. The reason is because our ser
mons and exhortations are not interest
ing, and practical, and helpful. Some
one might as well tell the whole truth on
this subject, and so l will tell it. The
religious discourse of the future, the
Gospel sermon to come forth and shake
the nations and lift the people out of
darkness, will be a popular sermon, just
for the simple reason that it will meet
the woes and the wants and the anxieties
of the people.
There are in all our denominations
ecclesiastical mummies sitting around to
frown upon the fresh young pulpits of
America, to try to awe them down, to
cry out, "Tutl tut! tut Sensational!''
They stand today preaching in churches
that hold thousand people, and there
are a hundred persons present, and if
they cannot have the world saved in their
way it seems as if they do not want it
saved at all.
do not know but the old way of MAX
ing ministers of the Gospel is better-a
collegiate education and am apprentice
ship under the care and home attention
of some earnest, aged Christian minister,
the young man getting the patriarch's
spirit and assisting him in his religious
service. Young lawyers study with old
lawyers, young physicians with old
physicians, and l believe it would be a
great help if every young man studying
for the Gospel ministry could put himself
In the home, and heart, and sympathy,
and under the benediction and perpetual
presence of a Christian minister.
But l remark again, the religious dis
course of the future will be an awakening
sermon. From altar rail to the front
doorstep under that sermon an audience
will get up and start for heaven. There
will be in it many staccato passage. 1t
will not be a lullaby; it will be battle
charge. Men will drop their sins, for
they will feel the hot breath of pursuing
retribution on the back of their necks.
1t will be sympathetic with all the phys
ical distresses as well as the spiritual dis
tresses of the world Christ not only
preached but he healed paralysis, and he
healed epilepsy, and he healed the dumb
and the blind and ten lepers.
That religious discourse of the future
will be an everyday sermon, going right
down into every mans life, and it win
teach him how to vote, how to bargain.
how to pillow, how to do any work he is
called to, how to WELD trowel and pen
and pencil and yardstick and plane. And
IT will teach women how to preside over
their households, and how to educate
their children. and how to initiate
Miriam and Esther and vashti and Eu-
nice, the mother of Timothy, and Mary,
the mother of Christ; and those women
who on northern and southern battle
fields were mistaken by the wounded for
angels of mercy fresh from the throne of
God.
Yes I have To tall ,-rn, tho rolior;o.,a